Indiana Jones: That belongs in a museum. Panama Hat Guy: So do you.

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When I was nineish, my dad and I went to the local movie theater on a sleepy Saturday during the summer and saw a double feature of Indian Jones and the Last Crusade and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Being the impressionable lad that any pre-teen would be, I instantly decided I wanted to be an archaeologist after watching the exploits of Indiana Jones. Little did I know that the main job of an archaeologist was NOT fighting Nazis and finding the Holy Grail on the side while being a university professor. Better to be Indiana Jones I suppose than to want to be Captain Kirk, I suppose. Though in retrospect I think I side much more with the Captain Sisko line of authoritative captains in the Star Trek universe, but that is another post for another community I would suspect. 

I always wonder what motivates us to be who we are, and our career choice(s) say a lot about how we view ourself and what our motivations/agendas are, so I think it is an interesting way to at least create a thumbnail sketch of the image we portray outwards. When I was in fourth grade, my teacher gave us a listing of careers, complete with short descriptions, pay rates, etc. Why she did this, I have no clue. I don't think many children have any clue what they want to be in the future, but apparently I did; I wanted to be an architect, since that is what my father's career had been before I came about. I found it interesting to see how much I changed from one year, and one movie, the capriciousness of a young boy's imagination and how easily it is swayed from one idea to another without even a thought about it. Fast forward years later, and I picked neither Indian Jones nor the dashing Randian Howard Roark character of "The Fountainhead" fame: the closest thing to archaeology I ever got to was sitting in a historical archaeology class taught by a 4'5" Jewish lady who'd descend the whole class into Powerpoint Hell, not saving the Indian village by returning the sacred stone and rescuing the children from the evil Thuggees.

So, my dear talk_politics, what inspired you to do what you do for a career/life?
   

A not-so-Pacific ocean

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O hail thee, bloodthirsty warmongers peaceful folks who crave for love and harmony! "Even if you bought from us just one bullet for each soldier in your military, we'd still have work for years and years ahead". That's what our prime-minister Boyko Borisov recently told the deputy commander of the Chinese military at a recent weapons exhibition over here in Plovdiv, called "Hemus-2012" (Hemus is how the Romans used to call the Balkan mountain range btw). Typical Boyko style, yeah. And typically, he was trying to pimp out our arms industry, which surprisingly has remained among the top arms industries in the world, disproportionately large in relation to the size of our tiny country. Some say if our arms industry became obsolete, we'd have to shut down our economy. Smartasses. Why ignore tourism, eh? Imagine if even .1% of the Chinese decided to come here at our Black Sea resorts. But I digress. Back to the Military Industrial Complex (a.k.a. ZOD). It's every arms dealer's dream really, striking a bargain with the Chinese to supply their military with bullets and other exploding stuff. It's like a billion dollar Faberge egg... nah, more like a thousand Faberge eggs, only more explosive. (I wish there was such a bomb).

Our own Batman, Super-Boyko may've chosen the tactic of his salesman wankery pretty damn right, but he hardly chose the right direction, I'm sorry to disappoint him. China itself is one of the world's leaders in the arms production. A recent report by the International Institute For Strategic Studies (NAMBLA) concluded that this year for the first time in modern history, Asia has surpassed Europe in terms of arms expenses. And that's mostly thanks to China and India. While Europe is trying to tie up its pants and slash expenses in all sectors, from pet food subsidies to housing for squirrels, and yes, including military programs as well, in China and India, carriers and nuclear U-barges are becoming a symbol of high status and national braggery. They're the visible indicator for the shift of the center of power of global politics to the East. Go East, Go East, the Pet Shop Boys should've sung. But they've always been out of touch, the poor fellows. It's quite telling that the statement of US secretary of defense Panetta during the military forum Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore a couple of weeks back, was "We have to rebalance our strategy towards the Asian-Pacific region". Well, no shit Leon? I mean look at this...

  

That guy is making the Hitler salute with his leg, FFS! Who would ever dare to oppose those mofos!? I'm scared...

( And it's getting better, OMG... )